Health Bill could force CQC to take itself to court, warns Jeremy Hunt
The CQC’s new responsibility around investigating patient safety could force the watchdog to take itself to court, MPs have been told.
As part of the Health Bill, the CQC will be given new powers to investigate patient safety and more time to initiate proceedings against providers who fail to provide safe care.
The bill will also abolish the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) and transfer its functions to the CQC. Powers currently held by HSSIB safety investigators will be carried over to CQC, including powers of entry and the ability to demand and secure documentary and other evidence.
The House of Commons health and social care committee heard evidence from experts around the transfer, including from former health secretary Sir Jeremy Hunt.
HSSIB was established in 2023 as a non-departmental body and carried out independent patient safety investigations into any patient safety incident linked to NHS-provided or privately provided healthcare in England, with ‘a focus on learning not on blame or liability’.
Sir Jeremy told MPs on the committee that the all-party patient safety group he chairs is ‘unanimously opposed’ to this merger and the main reason is a ‘very specific legal concern’ about a conflict of interest inside the CQC.
Sir Jeremy said: ‘They could be under a legal obligation to use the information that had been supplied to another part of the CQC, and there is a risk that one part of the CQC could actually have to go to a high court to get information out of another part of the CQC and actually be legally obliged to do so, which I think would be completely ridiculous.’
HSSIB interim chief executive Rosie Bennywoth told the committee: ‘There needs to be very careful thought about the governance arrangements within the CQC, so that there is a separate identity and a separate ring around HSSIB.
‘So that there is real clarity for people externally and internally about what is within the investigatory function and what’s within the regulatory function. At present I’m not sure the legislation gives that that level of clarity.’
In written evidence to the committee, the CQC raised similar concerns about the transfer, especially around the conflict of interest in ‘protecting the safe space between proposed investigatory and regulatory arms’.
Since the bill was announced, GP leaders and data experts expressed concern that the legislation is an ‘exercise in raw political power’ which gives the health secretary far-reaching authority to share patient data with private companies, researchers, and across all parts of the NHS, while failing to clarify the issue of data controllership.
Next month, the CQC will start piloting its new assessment framework specific to primary care, with inspectors using ‘Word templates’ initially while new digital systems are built.
